News & Stories

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has been ranked No. 1 again in Hong Kong in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences by Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2011. The University has held this standing since the ARWU engineering field ranking was first published in 2007. HKUST Dean of Engineering, Prof Khaled Ben Letaief, said "HKUST has been consistently ranked among the top universities in the world in Engineering and this is without any question due to the distinction of our faculty and students. We shall continue to work hard to further develop HKUST as a global center of excellence in research and education which welcomes talented faculty and students from around the world."

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) partnered with UCLA to host Hong Kong's first Research in Industrial Projects for Students (RIPS), a summer research plus industrial internship and international education exchange program. RIPS had collaborated with Berlin and Beijing before, and this year it was being held in Hong Kong. RIPS-HK featured projects with a major mathematical component and was supported by prominent industrial sponsors Huawei, MetLife and BGI.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) hosted a special visit by the world's largest solar-powered catamaran MS Tûranor PlanetSolar today (18 August) to raise environmental consciousness among the younger generation. HKUST and PlanetSolar share the same vision of building a culture of environmental protection across the globe. The owners of PlanetSolar Cordula Ströeher, Jan Hendrik Ströeher and Oliver Goldenbow, Captain Erwann Le Rouzic and three crew members visited HKUST today. Prof Yuk-shan Wong, HKUST's Vice-President for Administration and Business, and Prof Eden Y Woon, Vice-President for Institutional Advancement, joined over 200 HKUST faculty members, students, as well as primary and secondary school students to welcome the boat. The Captain shared the experience about the solar-powered expedition, the significance of solar energy development and green living.

A group of physicists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) led by Prof Shengwang Du reported the direct observation of optical precursor of a single photon and proved that single photons cannot travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. HKUST's study reaffirms Einstein's theory that nothing travels faster than light and closes a decade-long debate about the speed of a single photon.

The Hong Kong team of the 42nd International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) proudly brought home 3 Gold and 2 Silver medals from Thailand. Students of the award-winning team were trainees of the Physics Enhancement Program under the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's (HKUST) Department of Physics. HKUST is dedicated to discovering and nurturing elite talents to advance the science and technology development of Hong Kong. Hong Kong contestants of the IPhO have attended a focused training camp by HKUST for one year. Apart from receiving training in Physics equivalent to Bachelor's level, they also fully mastered different practical techniques. The students were selected for possessing sound fundamental science knowledge and positive mentality to become qualified to enter the IPhO.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's engineering professors Matthew McKay and Bing Zeng from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering were recently awarded the 2011 Stephen O Rice Prize in the Field of Communications Theory and the 2011 Circuits and Systems Society CSVT Transactions Best Paper Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) respectively. This is the first time such distinguished international awards have been presented to researchers from Hong Kong.

A team of undergraduate students from the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has won the Design Elegance Award in their very first attempt at the 2011 International Student Remotely Operated Vehicle Competition (ROV). The three-day competition was held at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, USA, in mid June. This year, 26 teams of higher education students from seven countries participated. Under the simulation of oil spill scenario in the Gulf of Mexico, teams were required to design underwater robots, known as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), to execute various tasks at a depth of over ten meters under water, such as collecting water samples, capping a wellhead and rescuing animals. Teams also had to introduce their ROVs to a panel of judges through presentation of posters. Team members were tested on both their ability to communicate what they learned and how they put their knowledge to use.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Chair Professor Mingjie Zhang and his team of researchers in the Division of Life Science have achieved significant breakthrough concerning the visual systems of animals detecting light. The discovery has been published in Cell, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in biomedical sciences, as the cover story in its latest issue.